


it's an honor

by halfasgoodatanything



Category: Captain America (Movies), Captain America - All Media Types, Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: M/M, Mutual Pining, Pining, Pining Steve Rogers, Pining Tony Stark, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, cant really see it tho, pining DISASTER STEVE, sooooft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-04
Updated: 2018-09-04
Packaged: 2019-07-07 00:15:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,041
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15897021
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/halfasgoodatanything/pseuds/halfasgoodatanything
Summary: steve is in love with tony. tony invites him to a gala to make steve's guy jealous, and get good PR for stark industries. feelings ensue. pining-est fic u will EVER read.





	it's an honor

**Author's Note:**

  * For [itsallAvengers](https://archiveofourown.org/users/itsallAvengers/gifts).



> written for itsallavengers! gee has inspired me to start writing on here with her beautiful beautiful writing!!! all my love!!!

Tony’s beautiful.

There’s been many times Steve has thought this since waking up. Sure, in the beginning, some if it was lost in translation, the anger clouding what would eventually become…attraction, of sorts.

And now, Steve’s sitting on a rarely-used couch in Tony’s workshop sketching the man who’s blow torching something with not nearly enough care. His eyes, brown and warm, soft and comforting- Steve could never get it _right,_ the way his eyes crinkled in exasperation and humor at him. He wanted to pen Tony down on paper. He’s an enigma.

“Stop staring, Stars and Stripes,” Tony says, not looking up from his work. The torch is gone and a wrench had taken its place.

_He looks good_ a traitorous part of his mind offered him. He did, in fact, look good. There’s a grease stain on his tank and Steve wants to make him eat something, knows he hasn’t for too long. HIs hair’s sticking up and that same traitorous part of his mind offers the idea of running his hands through it.

“Was lookin’ at Dum-E.” Not his best line. He’s never been good around people he likes.

Not for the first time since waking, he wishes Bucky was there. Wishes he could heckle him about how he stutters when Tony calls him _Hot Stuff_ or _Captain Handsome._

“Dum-E was looking at you too, apparently. Send me the wedding dates. I’m his best man.”

“Don’t you have to walk him down the aisle? You’re his dad,” Steve quips back, and Tony _grins,_ teeth showing, smiling in the way he always does when Steve plays along with his antics. He used to find doing that exhausting. Now it’s worth it just for the grin.

“Cap, I’ve heard through the grape vines there _is_ someone on your mind.” Tony sounds suggestive, teasing, a way he’s heard him talk to Bruce about the coffee girl in the lower level of the Tower.

Tony’s eyes- they’re something out of a novel, bright and brown and now- they’re teasing and curious. Steve sees the way he looks at Rhodes, at Pepper, at Peter- the people he considers his family. Steve can read Tony like a book. He just doesn’t always like it.

“There’s no one, Tony.” He says, the lie burning on his tongue. He looks down to stare at his own hands but his eyes wander to Tony’s- greased and  gorgeous- brilliant, building things he couldn’t conceive.

Of course there’s someone.

“Bullshit,” Tony laughed. It doesn’t sound real.

A lot of people can make Tony smile. He’s not sure he’s one of them.

Tony’s got grease on the edge of his hands, more like stains because it doesn’t transfer when he touches Steve. He smells like metal and he looks like something out of a sketch. Steve wants to see all the different ways Tony can leave a stain.

"Even if there was someone- he wouldn’t see me that way. I’m not his kinda fella.”

_Him._ Shit, shit, he’d said _him_ in front of Tony and Tony was a genius, he could make the connection, Steve was _fucked-_

Except Tony didn’t seem to be making any connections, just looking at him with a cocked head and a pretty look of confusion (maybe it was just him who thought it was cute), like he’d said something absolutely insane.

Tony doesn’t reply, just swings an arm around Steve;s shoulder (he smells like lavender soap he thinks Pepper stocks for the whole tower, motor oil, like _Tony-_ Steve wants to bury his face in Tony’s neck- _focus, Steve)_ and he speaks.

“Whoever this guy his, he’d be an idiot for not seeing you that way, Cap.”

_Call me Steve, please. Call me anything._

He lets Tony hug him, stiff because he doesn’t know what else to be, knows he can’t lean into Tony. No matter how much he wants to.

He’s warm and kind and smells like pine, the cologne he uses when he’s just at home. Steve can smell everything more intensely, and normally it’s a bit of a curse. Sensory overload. But he always wants to take in as much of Tony as he possibly can.

“Steve…” oh, there it is, Tony wants something. His voice is soft and precious and Steve hates how he can read Tony like a script. His name sounds so good on Tony’s voice. “I have this gala, and I was wondering, well- I, uh,”

“Wondering what?” Steve responds gently, because he knows Tony needs that push, sometimes. He does. He’s not as confident asking for things as the press seems to think.

“The guy you like,” Tony blurts, too fast and unreadable, clearly unhappy still, “Would he be jealous if he saw you with someone else?”

And this, for a second, Steve ponders. Because Tony is the jealous type. He’s seen it back when Tony was with Pepper. He’s jealous in general though, of silly things too. When DUM-E likes someone else and takes a second to play, Tony gets jealous. He’s just insecure.

“Well, if he liked me, sure. Why?”

“I’ve got this gala thing, for the September Foundation. Was wondering of you’d wanna be my date. Just for PR of course.”

Tony, in one of those suits, the ones Pepper fusses over him to wear. He’d thought about going to one of those with Tony for years now. Tony would look at him with that lopsided grin, whisper _“you make tonight bearable, rogers”_ and Steve would hold his hand. He’d politely stand between the women who flirt with Tony and he’d have a _right_ to do so.

_Just for PR of course._

And Tony’s got an arm around him, eyes bright and emotional but still unreadable, not what Steve’s used to and he wants to kiss it away until he sees the smile again. But that’s- it’s not what he’s getting. A charade sounds nice though. At least for a night.

“What does that have to do with me having a crush?” He’s still not used to the term. It sounds juvenile.

The other man’s eyes light up, mischief in his eyes. It’s the same light he gets before building a miracle.

“Everyone you know will be there Rogers. Including your mystery man.”

“Are you suggesting,” Steve says, drawing in a breath, “We go to a gala to make my…person of interest…jealous?”

Tony grins. It’s blinding. Steve still doesn’t want to stop looking.

“Brilliant, right?”

Apparently Tony had Steve’s suit designed before Steve even thought to agree.

________________________

Tony looks gorgeous in a suit, which Steve already knew. However, it’s an entirely different experience to know that Tony was with _him_ tonight. Tony’s suit is a deep blue, ever the ostentatious, refusing to be black. His hair is curly, unlike what he normally does for galas. The delight Steve feels- he tries to bury it.

“You look _gorgeous,_ Captain Virtue.” Tony drawls, and Steve _flushes._

“Oh, god, he’s blushing. Pep, get the cameras, Jarvis, come on, look-“

“Thank you, Tony.” He manages back.

He does look nice, though. Steve’s suit is black, his dress shirt white and his tie a deep blue. The color of Tony’s suit.

In the limo ride to the event, Tony lifts his wrists to show his cuff links.

They’re little shields. God, he loves this man.

He smiles at the cuff links and Tony puts on his press smile (which is still _pretty,_ but Steve prefers the sleepy one he gets to see when he’s padding around the workshop at midnight).

“Show time, Cap.”

And then, Jesus fucking _christ-_ Tony’s holding his hand. It hits him then, tonight, he’s Tony’s _guest._ People are going to think they’re together. Tony’s hands are warm and dry and Steve’s hoping his aren’t sweaty.

“Is he here tonight?” Tony whispers in his ear, and to the cameras, it looks like he’s whispering a sweet nothing into Steve’s ear.

“I think so,” and it gets away from him.

The evening slips away quickly.

Tony talks through people like he can walk right through them, but Steve stays close. He laughs, and every now and then Tony places an arm around his waist, and he wants it to stay there.

He also keeps asking if Steve’s seen his mystery guy if he’s jealous. He doesn’t think so.

At the end of the night, most of the billionaires have left, and they’re dancing.

Peggy was Tony’s godmother. He’s fairly certain Tony knows the significance dances hold for Steve. Tony regards little with care, little with delicacy. There’s his work, that his hands run over like they’re honored to do so, and then there’s the way Tony holds the people he loves. The way he hugs Rhodes, the way he held Pepper.

Now, Tony’s arms are around his waist, with care. He tries not to read into that.

“I know you came here for me,” Tony says, and his heart freezes in his chest. Lord, he’s afraid of the cold. Did Tony _know?_ Did he invite him here to taunt him, to show him exactly just what he can’t have? “I appreciate it. I know you can’t want people to think we’re together.”

“What?” Steve replies dumbly. It’s all he can say.

“I haven’t seen your guy yet,” Tony’s voice is soft, beautiful, but it’s sad. It hurts to hear. “But I know that being seen with me- it’s more to help me than to help you.”

“Tony, you can’t think-“

“It was big of you, to help me with this. I was just hoping I could help you get your guy too.”

Silence dances between them as they turn around to the music.

“Tony,” he stops their movement so he can look Tony in the eye. Eyes he can’t seem to stop looking at. “It’s an honor to be here with you. Anyone would be lucky to.”

“I’m an ex arms dealer with issues up to the neck and I-“

“And you’ve made up for any mistakes you’ve made tenfold. And you will, if you don’t think you have already. Tony, people come here event after event with you, and maybe they take the opportunity for granted. I don’t, okay?”

That, well. Sure as hell isn’t subtle. Tony surely knows now.

“That guy, you like,” Tony pauses, “He’s- I don’t think he’s the jealous one.”

“Hmm?” His heart is in his throat. Doesn’t let him say a word.

“You think it’s an honor to go somewhere with _me._ Steve, you going anywhere with me, the store, the workshop, watching you play with DUM-E and U, that’s an honor. I don’t think your, fella or whatever, appreciates it. I do.”

That sounds like- it does, doesn’t it?

He closes his eyes for a second and lets himself picture it. Tony wanting him back. Tony seeing him as something _greater._ Tony looking at him when he draws, brown eyes warm and fond over him. Tony’s gaze could burn out the ice that sticks in his chest.

“What if it was you?”

This silence feels like a canyon between them. Tony’s still holding him, and they’re still close. Touching. But the silence- it’s a rift and he’s put it out there, that Tony’s the person who’s captured his interest. Has he ruined everything? The team, shit, what if Tony kicks him off of it- what if he doesn’t want to work with him-

“Me?” oh, that’s hope in his voice, isn’t it? Tony looks disbelieving, but in the best way. Like someone’s given him the best prize in the world.

“Yeah,” Steve breathes out in one breath.

“You said he’d never like you like you like him.”

“I’m not your type.”

And Tony laughs, huffs out a small chuckle and Steve eats it up. He wants anything and everything Tony Stark can give him.

“Cap, you’ve been my type since I knew what a type was.”

Steve’s never been brave in the sense of making moves. It’s a good thing Tony is.

They kiss, in front of sponsors and donators and Tony tastes like perfection, smells like expensive cologne and motor oil. He can never _really_ get that scent off of him, not with Steve’s super senses.

It’s worth the scolding Pepper gives them and more.

**Author's Note:**

> follow me on tumblr, sweethearttony!


End file.
